PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The Police Department has beefed up enforcement near the Brown University campus and Thayer Street after a series of violent incidents last spring.

By W. Zachary Malinowski

PROVIDENCE — The Police Department has beefed up enforcement near the Brown University campus and Thayer Street after a series of assaults, robberies and violent incidents last spring.

Deputy Police Chief Thomas F. Oates III said that The Thayer Street District Management Authority has hired two plainclothes Providence police officers to patrol the East Side neighborhood on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m.

“There has been a spike in violence and we need extra patrols up there,” he said. “We had a meeting with the business association and they talked about a lot of different things.”

The officers are paid $40 an hour, or $160 for each four-hour shift.

Students at Brown returned to the campus this week, meaning that there will be thousands of students hitting the hotspots on a regular basis. On Wednesday, all athletes participating in fall sports attended a mandatory meeting at Brown’s Smith-Buonanno Building about last spring’s brutal assault on Joseph Sharkey, a sophomore basketball player, and increased security on campus.

The speaker was Stephen Lynch, retired major and detective commander of the Rhode Island State Police, who has worked as an assistant athletic director/compliance officer at Brown.

The most serious problems have plagued the area of Thayer Street, a popular half-mile strip lined with restaurants, bars, clothing stores, coffee shops and The Brown Bookstore. Many of the drinking and eating establishments are open after midnight and draw hungry college and high school students as well as others from Massachusetts and Connecticut looking for action.

The large crowds often result in fisticuffs, brawls and other crimes on Thayer Street and nearby streets in the historic neighborhood where college students live in dormitories or rent apartments.

On June 2, an 18-year-old member of the Hanover Boyz street gang was shot near the corner of Thayer and Meeting streets. The victim, Edgar Mendez, survived, despite being shot in the right side of his torso.

On June 26, two Brown students walking on Waterman Street were approached by a knife-wielding man who demanded money. The students handed over cash and were not injured. The armed robber hopped into a car and fled on Brown Street.

On May 12, around 2:25 a.m., Joseph Sharkey, a Brown sophomore and backup guard on the basketball team, suffered serious head injuries when he was punched in the face and struck his head on the pavement at the corner of Thayer and George streets. Tory Lussier, of Ellington, Conn., has been charged with felony assault. An investigation by Providence detectives also resulted in the arrest of Dillion “DJ” Ingham, a Brown student, who allegedly assaulted one of Lussier’s friends. He also was charged with felony assault.

On May 18, in the early morning hours, the police were clearing Thayer Street as the bars emptied and spotted a man heckling Aaron Hernandez, the star tight end of the New England Patriots. The police said the heckler and several of his friends followed Hernandez for a few blocks. The police, fearing a confrontation, intervened and called for backup. A Brown University police officer said he spotted a heavyset black man toss a handgun under a parked car and run off.

A month later, Hernandez was charged with first-degree murder in the execution-style killing of Odin L. Lloyd, a semipro football player, in an industrial pit in North Attleboro. One of his alleged accomplices, Ernest Wallace, 41, was charged with being an accessory after the fact of murder. A prosecutor in Bristol County (Mass.) said that Wallace threw the .22-caliber handgun under the car on Thayer Street.

Providence police Lt. John K. Ryan, commander of District 8 and 9 — which runs from the Fox Point waterfront to the Pawtucket city line — said the East Side, especially Thayer Street, has attracted larger crowds over the past five years.

“It’s become more and more popular,” he said.

On most nights, he said, six or seven uniformed police officers are responsible for covering the two districts. He said the biggest concerns are when the nightclubs, bars and restaurants close at 2 a.m. He said that the Brown University police also have patrols in the area.

Ryan said the detail officers will remain in the Thayer Street area “probably through the school year.”

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.